penmyst wrote:No reason to be concerned about Neal. He's not a player that creates his own chances as much as he works off of guys that do. When Malkin is around, Neal is able to slip into those soft spots around the slot and get chances or have more room on the rush to rip shots. I saw HCDB tossed him out there with Crosby ES a couple times, probably hoping to get him jump started. Not going to see much of that because that top line has been too good to break up.

No reason to be concerned with Eaton. He's doing exactly what he always has. Maybe a bit slower, but then he is a solid 3rd pairing D with whom you know what you are going to get night in, night out. Not as good as some of the Pens younger D who sit, but then not as erratic either.

wow, an actual hockey response to a question....I don't know what to say to this. Seriously, thanks for the response. I did not realize this was such a bad question. I guess I need to go back to criticizing the ice, the crown noise, Brooks and/or Letang in order to fit in here....

Idoit40fans wrote:Its extremely obvious why he was producing and why his production dropped. It has also been discussed in other threads. Yes, it was a bad question and was inexplicably formatted like a poem.

It would be one thing if the 3rd line had chemistry which it clearly does not. What makes perfect sense to me but seems to get totally lost with the Pens is why not have the centers be Sid-Sutter-Vitale-Jeffrey? I mean, when we've sat Vitale, Jeffrey has centered the 4th line. Sutter is a tall and lanky playmaker who would be centering 2 tall and lanky playmakers. Vitale is pure aggression and would seem to fit perfectly with Cooke and TK.

The point came across pretty clear. You're going from Super star and all star to average to slightly above average second liner and 13th forward. Two of the players you had in your lineup are drastically changing.

FallenHero96 wrote:Keep Neal away from Jeffrey. Wasn't he Neal's center for his first season here, when he had 1 goal in 20 games? I'd let Sutter center that line.

That was Letestu. Jeffrey tore his ACL earlier in the year prior to the Neal trade.

I think Jeffrey has actually done a pretty solid job filling in for Malkin. There seems to be a fair amount of criticism towards him simply because he isn't Malkin, but he's played a good two-way game.

FallenHero96 wrote:Keep Neal away from Jeffrey. Wasn't he Neal's center for his first season here, when he had 1 goal in 20 games? I'd let Sutter center that line.

That was Letestu. Jeffrey tore his ACL earlier in the year prior to the Neal trade.

I think Jeffrey has actually done a pretty solid job filling in for Malkin. There seems to be a fair amount of criticism towards him simply because he isn't Malkin, but he's played a good two-way game.

Actually, during Neal's first year here, both Letestu and Jeffrey were his centermen...at least for a while until Jeffrey got hurt. Crosby and Malkin were both out by the time Neal showed up. What a terrible year that was. I went to a pens/habs game that spring, pens lost 3-0. We had already acquired Kovalev but Jeffrey was still playing. I remember because he ripped one off the crossbar about 2 minutes into the game, and the pens never sniffed a goal the rest of the way.